Always approachable and easy to talk to.
Axel Ockenfels is Professor of Economics at the University of Cologne and Director of the Cologne Laboratory of Economic Research. He has been a full professor at the University since 2003. He obtained his Diploma in Economics from the University of Bonn in 1994 and his PhD in Economics from the University of Magdeburg in 1998. Earlier positions include Associate Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Economics in Jena (2002–2003), Assistant Professor at the University of Magdeburg (1999–2001), Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Business School (1999–2000), and Visiting Scholar at Penn State University (1996–1997). Since 2025, he is the Founding Director of the Adenauer School of Government. He became Director at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics in Bonn in 2023. Ockenfels coordinates the Excellence Center for Social and Economic Behavior (C-SEB) and the Research Area “Market Design & Behavior” within the Excellence Cluster ECONtribute. He holds memberships in the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, and acatech.
His research focuses on behavioral economic engineering, which combines game theory and behavioral research to design markets, algorithms, and competitive strategies. Applications span the internet, electricity, climate, telecommunication, finance, transport, and crisis scenarios such as vaccine supply and energy conservation. Key publications include “ERC: A Theory of Equity, Reciprocity, and Competition” (Bolton and Ockenfels, American Economic Review, 2000), “Last-Minute Bidding and the Rules for Ending Second-Price Auctions: Evidence from eBay and Amazon Auctions on the Internet” (Roth and Ockenfels, American Economic Review, 2002), and “How Effective Are Electronic Reputation Mechanisms? An Experimental Investigation” (Bolton, Katok, and Ockenfels, Management Science, 2004). These works have significantly influenced the field, evidenced by over 23,500 citations and an h-index of 54. Ockenfels has received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2005), Gossen Prize (2006), ERC Advanced Grant (2018), Zukunftspreis of the University of Cologne (2020), and Exeter Prize (2022). He serves as Department Editor for Management Science and advises the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.